Just as fast as gas prices rose, they're now in retreat. Monday's AAA Fuel Report Gage puts the national average of regular at $3.703, down from $3.970 a month ago. Several factors could push gas below $3.50 over the next several weeks, and almost none of them were part of the economic landscape a quarter ago.

As a new week begins on Wall Street, nobody wants bank stocks, J.P. Morgan Chase hints at changes at the top, OPEC ministers tussle over crude, and airlines are in for some financial turbulence. In fact, the only good news is for France, which apparently won't lose the IMF over the DSK scandal.

The theme for Thursday is big players adjusting to a changing world: Citigroup is shutting down a major hedge fund it used for soon-to-be-banned proprietary trading, Goldman has been subpoenaed over its role in the subprime mortgage crisis, and OPEC is thinking that it might need to pump more oil.

Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said his country cut oil production in March because the market was oversupplied. Was this move an honest bid to a bid to expose the speculators and push prices back down, or an attempt to capitalize on the current instability to propel prices higher?

Fears over Mideast turmoil have pushed oil and gas prices sky high, which risks tipping the U.S. economy back in to a recession. But the government isn't powerless when it comes to oil prices: Here are five things that Washington and the states can do that would quickly reduce our pain at the pump.

And that means it may be time for owners of gas-thirsty SUVs and cars to start considering the switch so many Americans are loath to make: to a far more fuel-efficient vehicle. Looking out over the next several years, it's hard to see oil -- and gasoline -- falling back to earlier lows.

The markets may have had a rough weak as U.S. GDP growth was revised down and Middle East unrest caused oil prices to rise, but the consumer sentiment index rose to its highest level since January 2008. Sentiment has risen for about six months -- an encouraging sign -- but oil prices could sour the mood.

Events in the Mideast have, once again, revealed the U.S. economy's vulnerability to an oil shock. Now more than ever, the nation must reduce its consumption of oil, especially from abroad, and become energy self-sufficient. And the way to do it is with our abundant domestic sources of natural gas.

Proponents of the peak-oil theory can muster studies and statistics backing their claim that declining global oil output is nigh. Critics point to new technologies and unconventional oil fields as saviors. Either way, a return to the days of $1.50-a-gallon gasoline isn't going to happen.

Unless there's a breakthrough in battery technology, gasoline will remain the primary auto fuel in the U.S. for years. But our dependence on imported oil comes with a major risk of supply disruption. And the U.S. has a domestic alternative that's ready and reliable: natural gas.

With an oversupply of oil on the market and OPEC afraid that higher prices will impair the U.S. recovery and sap demand, the fundamentals point to an oil price drop in the near term. Yes, markets move on emotion, and fears about unrest in Egypt have reversed that downward price trend, but the drop is probably coming.

Oil prices, up more than 25% since August, are testing the $90 per barrel level and appear to be headed higher -- into what the International Energy Agency calls 'a dangerous zone' for the global economy.

Oil prices kept rising this weekend as a blizzard smacked into the Eastern Seaboard of the U.S. and as OPEC's Arab ministers met in Cairo to discuss strategy. Their call is for production to stay at current levels, which will help keep the upward pressure on prices.

Some OPEC members want oil prices to rise to $100 a barrel to offset the decline in the dollar.
The value of the dollar, which has slipped 13% since June against major world currencies, means that the "real price" of oil is about $20 less than current levels, Venezuela%u2019s Energy and Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said after Thursday%u2019s OPEC meeting in Vienna.

The U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly jumped to $46.3 billion in August, as the nation%u2019s deficit with China surged to a record $28 billion -- pushing overall imports up 2.1%, while overall exports rose just 0.2%. Oil prices were the other key culprit as our petroleum deficit surged 5.7%.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries will leave oil output unchanged, a delegate at the group's current meeting told Reuters. Oil ministers apparently are not worried the weak dollar will drive up the price of crude far enough that it will crimp the global economic recovery.